Jake Tapper: Trump Just Told the Taliban That House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Was Headed to Afghanistan

A visibly astonished and displeased Jake Tapper took pains to point out that when President Donald Trumpostentatiously canceled Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi‘s secret trip (with a congressional delegation) to Afghanistan, he compromised the entire delegation by announcing “to the world, including the Taliban,” that Pelosi was headed to the war-torn region.

Tapper led Thursday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead by reporting on Trump’s last-minute cancellation of a secret trip to Belgium and Afghanistan, in apparent retaliation to Pelosi’s request for Trump to postpone his State of the Union address until the government shutdown is ended.

Tapper immediately raised the security aspect of Trump’s announcement, saying he’d taken “he stunning step to cancel the military aircraft that were to be be used by Nancy Pelosi and congressional delegation in a trip to Afghanistan, publicly announcing, ahead of time, a secret trip to a war zone.”

He added that a GOP member of Congress told him “minutes ago [that] members of Congress are always told never divulge any trip to a war zone until after you have left the war zone.”

“A White House official tells CNN that Pelosi and members of Congress are welcome to fly commercial to Afghanistan, a remarkable statement given that the president just announced to the world, including the Taliban, that the speaker of the house was headed there,” Tapper added. Trump made a similar suggestion in his letter.

Tapper also called Trump out for referring to the trip to Afghanistan as a “public relations event.”

“Also stunning, the president in this letter referring to elected officials meeting with service members in harm’s way as a mere ‘public relations event.’ The president just went to Iraq. So did a Republican delegation, and all of them did so during the shutdown,” Tapper said.